Special interest
groups are able to have a substantial impact on the political system.
Such groups can provide valuable services to individuals and to elected
officials. They also can generate substantial benefits to a small
minority while imposing a small cost on many other people. This can
happen because the costs of a particular program may be spread widely.
Voters may not notice the small increased cost to them and therefore
may not take the time to study the matter in order to hold their elected
officials more accountable.

Elected officials,
like other people, respond to incentives. Being re-elected is often
an important incentive to government leaders. Re-election depends
on earning votes, a scarce "good." This means that elected
officials have a strong incentive to work on behalf of special interest
groups that they think can be helpful in finding votes at the next
election. This may occur even if the particular program they put into
effect is economically inefficient.

Research

Go to the Heartland Institutes
web page at http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=9474.
Make a list of what the author thinks are the real reasons we subsidize sports.
What is the relationship between the number of team franchises and the number
of cities interested in hosting them? What is the term used to describe this
relationship? How do incentives work to encourage public subsidies of stadiums?
What incentives might special interest groups offer to individuals? What advantages
might interest groups offer to elected officials?

Research

Select two articles
from the following websites and evaluate the author's arguments. List
the arguments for and against subsidies for stadiums. Identify biases
and errors in economic reasoning.